PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
TITLC.O.882
2 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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they are not sent, we shall assuredly take them by force. Of this we inform you. man whom we recognize as the head man in Laroot is the Onang Kayah Moutri.
Inclosure 6 in No. 61.
RETURN showing the Officers and Boats employed searching the Rivers for Piratical Boats, &c., on the 29th and 30th September, 1873.
Boat.
"Thalia's" boats-
Galley
Pinnace
•
1st culter
2nd cutter..
LL
Midge's " boats--
Gig
Cutter
Officer Employed.
Henry Bedford Woollcombe
Arthur Stuart Woodley
Frederick Abel Moysey ..
Charles Atkinson Rathborne
George Turner..
Hon. Frederick Canning Lascelles.
Percy Clinton Raitt
Philip Ernest. Creswell
John Frederick George Grant
Captain.
Lieutenant.
Surgeon.
Rank.
The
Navigating Midahipman.
Boalswain, 1st Class.
Lieutenant.
Midshipman.
Sub-Lieutenant.
Commander.
Sub-Lieutenant.
1
(Signed)
H. B. WOOLLCOMBE, Captain.
"Thalia," at Penang, October 3, 1873.
Inclosure 7 in No. 61.
Somerset Augustus Hungerford (lent from
"Thalia")
Sir,
79
Inclosure 9 in No. 61.
Lieutenant-Governor's Office, Penang, September 16, 1873.
I HAVE the honour to forward the inclosed copies of Reports and Minutes, &c., for your information.
I am, &c.
(Sigued)
To Commander Grant,
A. E. H. ANSON, Lieutenant-Governor.
Her Majesty's ship "Midge," off Laroot.
RETURN of Wounded during an Attack on Pirates by the Boats of Her Majesty's ship **Midge," in the Laroot River, on the 20th September, 1873.
Name.
James Kennedy
Samuel Crocker
Rank.
Nature of Wound.
Ordinary ..
Gun-shot
Private, Royal Marine Ditto
Light Infantry
(Signed)
Approved,
Remarks.
Ball entered the back between the scapula and vertebral column, and, passing obliquely through the dorsal musales, pierced the lower lobe of the right lung and lodged. Ball grazed the neck, bruizing and
destroying the skin.
RICH. T. B. HEAD, Staff Surgeon, 2nd Class.
(Signed) H. B. WOOLLCOMBE, Captain. "Thalia," at Penang, September 27, 1873.
Inclosure 8 in No. 61.
Summary of Piratical Obstructions destroyed and burnt in Laroot, on the 20th September and following day.
FIRST stockade, consisting of a low earthwork for the protection of the rifle and musket men. The guns, seven in number, protected by pallisades and logs of wood four to five deep.
Three junks, armed with five to seven guns and gingalls each. The iron ones were spiked and thrown into the river, together with the muskets. Only one rifle was taken, the remainder, which must have been numerous from the ammunition found, were taken into the jungle.
Second stockade of rammed earth, with a double pallisade, was unarmed, but seven guns were found in a large sampan. These were destroyed, and the stockade burnt.
Captured and brought out from Laroot one junk belonging to Penang. One row
boat was taken at the lower stockade.
(Signed) H. B. WOOLLCOMBE,
Captain and Senior Officer, Malacca Straits.
Vice-Admiral Sir Charles F. A. Shadwell, K.C.B
Commander-in-chief.
"Thalia," at Penang, October 3, 1873.
Sheweth,-
Inclosure 10 in No 61.
Petition,
To the Honourable the Lieutenant-Governor of Penang.
The humble petition of Chew Toout,
THAT your Petitioner for many years past has been and is now engaged in supplying this place with hard wood, bearns, and loga, principally Damman lant, cut in the forests of the neighbouring States, but principally in those of Perak, a valuable country in that respect :
That on the 24th August he dispatched a large wood boat, No. 281, to Pankok Dinding for a cargo of Damman lant beams. This boat when she left this bad on board a crew of six sailors, twelve Chinese passengers, and some Malays; besides she had also on board 43 bags of rice, 3 bails of opium, 1 pig, 100 fowls and ducks, 2 corges of baskets and chankols, 4 cases of sweetmeats, 30 mosquito curtains, 2 corges of trowsers and jackets, besides food and sundries, amounting in all to over 500 dollars:
That on the 4th of this month a Malay, named Chay Deen, came to your Petitioner and told him that a cargo boat had been seized by Macao Chinese and taken to Laroot: That about two days after that some Ahia Chinese arrived here and told your Petitioner that his boat had been burned at Laroot, and all his property carried away by the Seb Neng Chinese there; so that it would appear that his boat never reached Pankok Dinding, and what has become of the crew and the passengers is as yet a mystery.
Your Petitioner begs to lay this matter before your Honour, in the hope that, with the aid of the vessels of war now here, something may be done, if not to save the boat and property, to punish or rather to destroy' those pirates who, your Petitioner believes, belong to that party of Chinese at Laroot named Seh Neng, and thus help to put a stop to such attempts in future.
And your Petitioner will ever pray, &c.
Laroot, September 12, 1873.
(Signature of Chew Toout in Chinese characters.)
Inclosure 11 in No. 61.
To Superintendent of Police for report.
I FORWARD an information, taken on oath before me, by Sin Sew, who states he is ready to go and point out the pirates who attacked the Petitioner's wong kong. Chay Deen, the Malay man mentioned in petition, is not here at present, but the Petitioner informs me that he saw the boat attacked, and his own boat was also boarded and bis property seized. There can be no doubt but that the rest of the crew were murdered. If these men were allowed to proceed to Laroot, so as to meet Her Majesty's ship "Midge," and point out these pirates, it must have a great effect in putting a stop to these piratical attacks.
September 13, 1873.
(Signed)
September 16, 1873. The Hon, the Lieutenant-Governor.
(Signed)
A. E. H. ANSON. HENRY PLUNKET, Acting Superintendent.